No, the previous year score was 23-14. You can blame this on zero not being invented yet.
Yes, test branch.
Saw that the main game was updated today so I finished out the campaign I had going as Babylon in that one. Finally completed a campaign win based on achievements.
Took a couple wars on my eastern and western borders to convince the neighboring empires to accept peace and stay that way so I could build up and complete the achievements.
Carthage was so far off across a body of water I wasn’t sure how I’d ever go tackle them anyway, they were the closest on points. When I sort of figured out there was a choke point strip of land you’d have to single file mow thru not one but two barbarian factions with multiple settlements I was given just that much more incentive to simply go tall in place and win that way.
Once again, blast of a campaign, great game.
Started a game on the pre-made real-world map. Started as Carthage. Kind of tight and sparse down there by the desert. Lots of city sites and not many resources or even arable land.
Are you going to stick it out and see how it plays out?
finally won an ambition victory, 150 turns, noble, on the random map (i forget the name) they describe as “single player adventure mode” with “low resources” though neither feature was especially evident. the most striking thing about the map was the huge number of gaullish villages. got into 3 wars, first dismantling persia who was also attacked by greece, then declaring on egypt but never fighting them, and then when greece attacked. this last one was initiaaly scary as they had a lot more troops, but my tech snd training advantadge (playing as Babylonia) held off the initial wave and when carthage declared against them i could take a greek city , truce out, and end turn until the last 2 cities became legendary, completing the last ambition.
only 1 of which was scary, when Greece attacked. but then carthage attacked them from rhe
Odd, I was looking for this while setting up a new campaign in test and can’t find it.
Congrats btw!
I still see it. Below Resource Density and above Seed
Just played with it a bit, some buttons disappear including this one if you choose random map for map script. In clicking each choice I discovered center bias is only a choice with arid plateau, coastal rain basin and sea side. Which of course makes me interested in why it would only be an option for some map types.
Think I’ll go Coastal Rain Basin and turn off center bias and see what happens. Hopefully the result is we’re more spread out.
Because I just started one as Greece on a large map and ran into 2 majors in less than 10 turns w/o really trying.
This week’s game of the week is on an easier setting (“the Just”) and a smaller map. This let me get my first “mercy killing” victory (2x score of second place and half (?) the target score). Fastest victory ever (72 turns); in retrospect if I’d ignored ambitions and gone only for points it could have been even quicker.
Well done, I’ve never been close to a win at 72 turns.
Question to anyone and everyone: ever notice in difficulty settings there’s one called “custom”? What the heck does that mean?!
I often set up a game with, say, The Noble difficulty, then go into the Advanced Setup tab and make some adjustment, like moving the barbarian setting up to Strong. The result is that the game switches calling it The Noble to Custom.
The new double victory condition makes quick wins a lot more feasible.
Behavior I am noticing when I employ scouts to remain hidden in trees. Seems as though not only do they remain undetected when an enemy unit is adjacent, but that they are passively making it impassible for enemy units. In other words, I can send a scout right up next to a barbarian site that has a handful of units around it, and place the scout strategically in trees creating a roadblock preventing barbarian units from issuing forth to attack my military units. The barbarians never see the scout (never attack the scout) and are forced to route around it wasting ‘orders’. Anyone else feel that?
Ah, makes sense.
My play style, which I suspect is just a fancy of way saying not good, usually takes me down the path of taking out barbarian sties early for more city sites, which requires balancing pumping military units out with workers and improving stuff. Between them I don’t end up that far ahead of the others, certainly not far enough to trigger this.
I’ve not taken notice of this, I’ll look tonight, cool if it does.
Hmmm, a week or so ago, I thought that I had the experience of an enemy (not sure whether barb or nation) moving my invisible scout aside, into another hex. Maybe I saw it wrong. But I would be very curious as to what other people have seen regarding this.
Maybe a single scout is insufficient to make a determination. I’ll try and link up 2 or 3 scouts in trees and see if they really do remain undetected, immovable and impassible.
i think i only captured a few sites that game. The lower difficulty meant there were more open ones nearby And then I must’ve gotten 5 or so of the 14 points from wonders and 1 or2 more from legendary cities.
my current game is om a harder difficulty and Im tied for first at 5 points so early victory seems unlikely
I changed the map setting so majors are further apart, but still run into them if for no other reason we’re both scouting. Rome for example is west of me, and not surprisingly they’re of course expanding my way.
This inevitably means conflict. I guess I can really focus on diplomacy and see if we can stay out of a war so I can just develop, but most of my campaigns end up with someone (usually someones) declaring on me.
So if I’m understanding you right, you go with fewer cities than I guess I am and then go tall trying to tackle the achievements, is that right?
I ask because Rome as my current example is in the space of 30 years at 7 or 8 already based on creating that many cities. So there’s no way I can stay 2x of that unless they are either programmed to slow down on expansion at some point or run into someone (like me).
I am starting to get the hang of the double-score victory. Just won a random small seaside map as Baylonia on Strong in 104 turns. I had 19/27 and second place was at 9- the last 2 point came from capturing Athens.
Main ideas for my builder-based strategy- nothing very deep
-reserve city sites with military units, and try to snipe them from the AI when you are both attacking the same place
-pay tribute to stronger AI’s to get breathing room
-tech up and camp units in barracks/ranges to build xp in peacetime
- found at least 1 and preferably 2 religions so you can build their wonders, and their temples and cathedrals
-join in on wars against weaker opponents to grab an easy city.
ended up with 9 points from cities, 2 from legendary cities and 7 from wonders, including one that Greece built for me.
I guess I should move up another difficulty level and try again but I worry I wont be able to get the double score and then the game will take too long. So maybe I’ll try for double scores with other nations first, not sure what I’d enjoy most.
Yes, I find that that the game is set up so that “no contact” is simply not an option. I’ve even toyed with limiting early scouting, to avoid contact, but the game is now set up so that without scouts harvesting horses and the like, money becomes rough. I think you do better financially to pay tribute and generally take the most peace-inducing choices in your interactions, while scouting actively so as to harvest.
But invariably, I find that it is possible to keep the peace with the majors, no matter how strong they are, as long as you follow the peaceful options (which often means foregoing options that would benefit in other ways). And includes making choices to pick up traits that help avoid the damage of the pot-stirring events. Affable and diplomatic come to mind, I think there are a couple others. And I actually think it is easier to keep the peace with a nation I met very early than one I delayed contact with.
Of course, I am playing on mid-level difficulty. No idea how it plays out at the highest levels.